Trouble in Paradise
by Roronoa Reno
Summary: When Gregor and his family return for a small vacation, they find Luxa missing replaced by an ambitions man named Nero. Ripred has been lost-in-action and Gregor must uncover the awnsers to a web of questions before it's too late.
1. Prolouge

**I bring you what I want to call my own addition to the Underland Chronicles; it will not have a prophecy. I already have one planned for another story **

**Warning: I do not own the Underland Chronicles, but owning Ripred wouldn't be so bad**

o.x.X.x.X.x.o

Trouble

in

Paradise

o.x.X.x.X.x.o

The calm waters of a river laid undisturbed, resting in a web of stone tunnels underneath New York City. Gliding over the water at a sluggish rate, a coffin-shaped raft drifted towards the shore of the river. A scarred rat was on the raft, sniffing the air for a sign of life beyond his little crew, but only came up with the pungent oder of underwater plant-life.

The murky depths were cut into by a few more crafts, crewed by two rats each. They had been out in this maze of tunnels for a week at least, and no sign of any life down here. There was not even a slightest murmur in the wind, or a scent indicating that they were not alone out there.

Moral and rations were low, and the only thing that kept them from turning back is the fact that they might be lost. If they wandered off, death would be certain. The problem was even if they kept on course, death would also be immanent.

The one thought that drifted among the Gnawer's minds _'Why couldn't the humans ride the rivers and complete this mission, but no, they have to stay and lounge around there cozy city and leave us to do there dirty work,'_

Then that moment came, a grinding sound, like wood on wet muck, at first all though they had thought it was just a sandbar, and it was just a false alarm. A ripple of relief washed over the rats was they used there abilities of echolocation to detect they indeed had reached land, and could get off there horrible, coffin-shaped crafts. The pack leader, the heavily scarred one signaled them to dismount there vessels and investigate the beaches. The Gnawers were ecstatic about getting off the water and stretching there legs.

Sent to eliminate a threat to the peace that blanketed the Underland currently. A fairly large group of rats who were against the alliance of the nations under the crust of Overland. The rats started to sniff the cracks in the wall, under rocks, and in the small pits and holes in the ground. The first unlucky rat was sniffing a small pit in the land, when a tail flew out of shadows onto the Gnawers spine. The tough tail shattered the backbone and the now-paralyzed rat fell to his death in the pit. The scrimmage began after the screams of the rat were heard, the Gnawers turned with there claws outstretched ready to fight the on comers. They found enemies pouring into the beach, soon the battlefield was just a carpet of corpses. The rats began to fight there way through the enemies ranks to reach there crafts, desperate to use the vessels they once hated to save there lives. Only a few made it to the ships, the enemy Gnawers had wrecked almost all of them, and the rest flew into the jagged rocks that outlined the shore.

The scarred platoon's leader was the one who was handling the tussle the best, until he tripped over a dead carcass. He stumbled into a broad chest, and he turned a millisecond to late. A hulking paw filled with razor-sharp claws bore down onto the rats face, and his cry of pain echoed in the tunnel.


	2. A Strange Welcoming Party

**Ares is Awesome: Thank you for pointing this out to me. I shall be sure this never happens again.**

o.x.X.x.X.x.o

Trouble

in

Paradise

o.x.X.x.X.x.o

Two years had passed since the warrior left Regalia with his family. Through his actions, the Underland was peaceful. This boy was a symbol of light in the Underland, and none of it's inhabitants would ever believe he was standing outside it's entrance scared.

Gregor was had a dreaded case of the 'What Ifs'. His knuckles were white as he clenched them in a tight fist. Thousands of ideas were streaming through his head, going as fast as the waterway once was_. 'What if the Underland collapsed', 'what if the truce was called off, and the Underlanders were fighting', 'what if a new plaque had occurred, whiping out the people behind this rock'. _Gregor gave his head a good shake, he was the warrior in the prophecies! He had to get himself together before he got to Regalia, and that meant he had work fast.

It was summer in New York, and Gregor's family had been able to persuade his mom to abandon ideas about going to Tahiti. It was hard work, but they had managed to get her to go to Regalia instead.

The whole family, except for Grace, was ecstatic about meeting there old friends again. Lizzie had made a batch of cookies for Ripred, and was gripping it's plastic container tightly to her chest. His dad was prying open the rock with a crowbar, and talking to nobody about how fun it is in the Underland. The truth was all he was thinking about was Luxa, it was about the only thing he though about for the past two years. The entire reason he wanted to go back there was because of her, the future queen of Regalia.

"Gah!" He dad gasped as he finally moved the large rock, reveling a tunnel which led deeper into the earth. Loaded down with all the luggage it would be about a hour and a half hike down, hopefully the Underlander's had gotten the message about his vacation and had sent a bat over. There was no such luck as the minutes dragged by. Gregor sighed and headed into the tunnel, his family looked at each other slightly confused, before following him down.

It had been only fifteen minutes before a black shape shot past them, it was going to fast to identify it. They had only begun walking when another shape came at them at a much slower speed. When it go in there flashlight's range, they immediately recognized the species. It was a rather large bat, with creamy white with a red head, and speckles of red following on the wings. The bat gave out a sigh, and called the other shape back with her smooth, unbroken voice. "Odysseus, come back here, the Overlanders are right here!", a few seconds later the black shape came back, beating it's big black wings. They could finally see the shape that passed them so recklessly. It was a slightly smaller bat, it had black fur with lots of golden speckles over it.

"OH!" said Odysseus, who was now trying to hide his embarrassment. If bats could roll there eyes, the white bat surely did. She turned to the family and said, "Hello, my name is Hera. We have orders to take you to Regalia, sorry for the delay," there was a way she said it, it was just so smooth, and uncut by sharp syllables. All Odysseus did was nod his head meekly, and gesture them to get on his back. Gregor mounted the big bat, while Lizzie jumped onto Odysseus's back, making him grunt with a little bit of pain. The others gathered onto Hera's back, and piled there suitcases right next to them, just to make sure they didn't fall off.

Odysseus took off into the air, whooshing towards the direction of Regalia. Gregor felt the air on his face, it felt good to be on a bat again, riding the airwaves through caverns. His heart dropped into his stomach when he remembered his bond, Ares, who had died fighting the Bane. They had flown together, almost becoming part of the wind, dancing along it's meandering path to adventures. The flight back to Regalia zoomed by, his family was chattering excitedly, but Gregor was lost in his thoughts. By the time he was done reminiscing, they were flying over the city of Regalia. He peeked below Odysseus to see into the streets below. He saw carts of food bustling through the main paths, and vendors yelling over the chatter for the people to buy his items. He looked ahead and saw to his delight, it was the palace! "Where are we going Odysseus?" he asked excitedly. He was answered by, "The High Hall, there's a person who wants to see you there,"

Gregor's thoughts stopped at Luxa, no doubt she was the one Odysseus was talking about. He started to squirm in his set, so exciting to see the one he loved the most. Odysseus only grinned and swerved towards the direction of the High Hall.

Odysseus flight ended at the High Hall, he gently landed on the floor and his two riders slid off his back. Hera swiftly flew through a entrance and softly dropped to the ground, like a delicate flower. Boots jumped off excitedly and began to run around, drawing the attention of the crowd there. All eyes moved from Boots to Gregor, a tense few seconds pasted before the crowd flew into cheering, crying out that the Warrior has returned.

Gregor liked being cheered again, he hasn't since he last was there, he never realized how exhilarating it was. All cheering was ceased as a door in the very end of the room slammed open, and the crowd got quite. They began to part, and footsteps were heard, this only began to excite Gregor. As the final part of the people parted, instead of the beautiful girl that Gregor expected, came a man.

There was lots of adjectives that describes the man. Short, squat, chubby, old, wrinkly, beady-eyed, balding, hook-nosed, plump, and not Luxa. He opened up in a broad smile that Gregor suspected was a fake. "Hello," the man said cheerfully. "What a honor to met the Warrior of the prophecies," he said with a bow. He glanced at Lizzie, and let out a happy laugh. He grabbed the plastic container and looked at it's contents. "For me?" he said, and before Lizzie could say anything, he began to shove them in his mouth. His mother piped up in a shy sort of manner, "Excuse me for asking but, who are?"

The man looked at them and with his mouth filled with cookie he said, "Pwease excush meh, how ruhde of meh! My nahme ish Nero,"

Gregor had to step back from being hit by a brigade of spit and cookie. He looked and round, seeing Luxa was not among the crowd he said, "Excuse me but, where is Luxa?" He saw the crowd hushed even more, and some people seemed to be on the brink of tears. Nero looked at him with his little beady eyes. He swallowed his eighth cookie and said in a hush tone, "She's gone, without a trace, no evidence of struggle," he said, "I'm her replacement,"

Gregor looked in horror and stumbled back, _'Luxa... GONE!' _Even his mother looked shocked and worried. Nero continued, "We have search teams looking out for her every waking moment," he mumbled slightly.

Lizzie seemed to be on the brink of a panic-attack. Gregor looked around, Ripred wasn't in the crowd either. "Nero, where's Ripred?" he said. Ripred could always calm down Lizzie, no matter the situation. "Ripred, lost-in-action, whereabouts are unknown," Nero said.

Lizzie went nuts, breathing heavily, tears streamed down her cheeks, and weak cries went out. Nero tried to calm her down, but only made it worse. "He went down in a fair fight, evenly split," he said, and began to stuff cookies in his mouth. "NO HE DIDN'T" screeched a female voice from the crowd, the sound of a smashing chair and everyone set eyes on the rat. It was Lapblood, and she was fuming, and it look like she wouldn't calm down n a while. "YOU SENT HIM ON A SUICIDE MISSION! ONLY A FEW DOZEN AGAINST ONE HUNDRED!" All eyes now switched to Nero, waiting for his rebuttal.

"You have no proof of that delegate Lapblood," He said calmly. Lapblood sneered and motioned with her tail to her two guards behind her. They nodded and walked off through the door, they returned a few minutes later dragging a petrified rat. He was nervously looking side-to-side, and occasionally screamed for no reason, he clutched in his paw a chunk of raft wood. "We found this rat in a river, he was clinging to the remains of the crafts you sent the platoon with." Lapblood sneered. "We managed to get out of him they were ambushed and attacked, all died."

Gregor almost saw a flicker of rage in Nero's face, but he calmed down a bit and said, "How should I trust you, you could of hired him to act like he was ambushed," he sneered back. "This is Dreadlocks, Ripred's lieutenant, he never goes on a mission without him" Lapblood snarled back.

Gregor saw Nero fight down a inferno burning inside of him. Nero quickly got a hold of himself and said a curt, "Okay, do what you wish, say what you say," and he gestured them out with a flick of his hand. Lapblood was now in a tornado of rage, as she began to ran towards Nero she was restrained by her guards, who shook there heads. Lapblood seemed to cool extremely, but she cast one last glance at Nero before walking out of High Hall. The look was that of pure hatred.

Nero looked as if the quarrel hadn't even happened and he smiled at Gregor's family. "You must be tired. Odysseus, Hera, take these to there sleeping quarters please," with that he walked off still eating the cookies.

Gregor looked at Nero's retreating form, and just shook his head and climbed onto Odysseus's back with Lizzie. He didn't notice there flight to there quarters, he was too deep in thought.

o.x.X.x.X.x.o

**Sorry for the lame chapter, it's kind of hard to read --**

**Please R&R**


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